


Don't Cry

by orphan_account



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Car Accidents, Child Abuse, Dangerous Trust in Strangers, M/M, Self-Destruction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-11
Updated: 2019-02-19
Packaged: 2019-10-08 10:13:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17384564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Levi is haunted by his past, and his unclear future.Alone and hopeless, sometimes you do things you never would have before. Letting a stranger take you home might be one of them.





	1. Chapter 1

He couldn’t focus on the words before him. All he could think of was punching his bastard father, the wall, himself. He felt consumed by anger, and couldn’t seem to shake it like he usually would.  
It was alarming, how upset he was over such a petty thing. He tried to justify his emotions in his head. Nothing's good enough for her, he thought, and it’s normal to be overwhelmed when pleasing her is hopeless. It made sense, but he knew it was more than that; a collection of the last few days’ upsets. The yelling, the orders, the stress in her voice and patronizing words. He really was trying, despite everything knocking him down.  
With no support, no break from his own mind, he just couldn’t handle more. She couldn’t see the depression, the anxiety, or paranoia, especially when she didn’t care to look. She complained about his lack of income, his grades, even when he was passing, his fear of driving, and cried over things beyond his control to him. Blamed him. What more could he do while he battled so much? She had let her own demons consume her long ago, there would be no help from her.  
When he had agreed to online schooling, he hadn’t expected so many problems to arise from it. Before, he would have given anything to stay home from school and avoid the students and staff which made learning anything meaningful difficult. Now, he finds himself with no friends and no understanding of the world. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to run away or hide in his room.  
“Levi! Get your ass in here!” His mother shrieked. With a heaved sigh he pushed himself from his creaky chair, starting down the short hall.  
“Wha-”  
“Levi!”  
“Ma, I’m right here.” He tried to keep his voice meek to avoid her accusations of an attitude. It only annoyed her more.  
“I can see that. Now. Next time your mother calls, you better bloody well answer.” But, when he did answer, she’d rarely acknowledge him, and was angered all the same. He nodded, anyway. “Your teacher just emailed me, saying you’ve only finished three percent of English in three weeks?!”  
“Mom, it was Christmas break.” She didn’t care. She repeated herself, as she often did, but with different words. He didn’t know if it was that she'd forget what she'd just said, or if she thought he didn’t understand. “I know, Ma.”  
“Don’t talk back. I swear, you become more like your father every day!” He could only watch as she flicked through channels on the telly. He didn’t have the heart to tell her he hated being compared to that man. She loved him, and ignored his flaws except to pin them over Levi’s head. “Well? Are you going to go do something about it or just stand there like a retard?” He couldn’t help wincing at the term. He knew he was crude with his language, but he had boundaries. Marching back to the closet of a room, he slipped back into the uncomfortable seat, facing the screen of his shitty laptop. Willing his hands to move was nearly impossible and his eyes were unfocused and blank.  
He had to get out of there. As the broken screen flickered, showing its poor connection to the half broken keyboard was failing, he stood again. The window was hard to open, but the lack of a screen made slipping out relatively simple. His feet met snow and sharp rocks, but he didn’t mind. It reminded him of broken glass and dirty, pissed on carpets, no longer white. Sometimes he could imagine it was all a dream, a creation of his over active mind, and push it away from the back of his eyelids. He refused to believe that house still held him. They lived in the city, now, in a small, but clean vacationer’s cabin donated to the women’s abuse shelter.  
So much had happened in a few months. It didn’t feel real.  
He walked with his hands deep in his pockets, trying to warm his thighs and palms. His ears started stinging, then his throat burned. He’d never been good at fighting off the cold, as thin as he was. It was winter, and they didn’t have a car. Even if they had, he knew he wouldn’t get in it. A second of his vision was stolen by the sight of a semi, halting him in his tracks. So much had happened. 

The other customers entering the small, heated room between the automatic doors and the store looked at him strangely, but no one kicked him out or bothered telling him he wasn’t allowed inside. His feet were an ugly, patchy red and sickly white. He was sure he was bleeding, but he didn’t check. His mind was blissfully numb and quiet. Even with the stares, the whispers, he felt invisible. No one really cared, no one bothered. No one really saw. He was a ghost.  
Wavy, matted blonde hair reeking of tobacco, weed, and beer flashed before him, but he felt nothing.  
Brown eyes became bright green ones as he blinked. A very concerned looking brunette stood in front of him, his hands halfway to Levi’s shoulders. He jerked back a step, inhaling sharply as if he’d just woken from a dream.  
The young man seemed to realize the small boy hadn’t been listening. “Are you alright?” Of course, when Levi nodded, he was ignored. “Are you waiting for someone?” He shook his head. The man didn’t leave. “Do you need anything?”  
“No.” His voice was a rough rasp. Just go do your shopping, he thought, just like everyone else, and leave me alone.  
“Well, I can’t really just leave you here.” This encounter kept getting worse. Levi just wanted to rot into the floor and be done with everything. He wanted peace from the world, that eclipsing of noise and pain.  
“Of course you can.” Even now, people passed them in mass. Families with their own kids, single moms, dads, the violent alcoholic with dirty blonde hair and brown eyes.  
“I’m Eren. Can you tell me who you are?” Levi sighed as he shook his head.  
“You can buy me a sandwich.” Eren looked amused as he lead Levi into the Subway inside of Walmart.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Levi struggles with his conscious and common reason. Even for someone with nothing more to lose, the fear of pain, even familiar to him, keeps him at arm's length.

His father had talked about death often. His own and others’. He’d threaten strangers from the safety of his car for the pettiest things. He’d threaten to kill himself if Kuchel left him, or upset him. Levi watched as people milled past the Subway windows, wondering what he’s father would say to him now.  
“So, how old are you?” Eren sat in front of him, his ugly beige coat folded over the chair adjacent. It looked scratchy, but solid; able to keep the cold out of his bones. Levi’s arms raised with goosebumps.  
“Eighteen.” He wondered if this man was secretly a murderer, or rapist. He wondered if he was a victim, if he understood.  
“Do you live with someone?” Levi’s mind flared with a warning, but he easily ignored it. There were too many questions, to many possibilities to the stranger. He supposed it didn’t matter, and he’d gone this far. Nothing on the brunette’s face gave away ill-intent, only laced with worry, and Levi couldn’t bring himself to anticipate a lie.  
“Yes. My mother.” Eren glanced at him curiously, wondering why Levi wouldn’t meet his eyes. He thinks he’s lying. He’s going to call the police, and Levi’s head goes blank. Eren pulled out his phone and proceeded to tap at the screen, making Levi’s shoulders raise anxiously. “What are you doing?”  
“I’m looking up missing children’s reports.” He says it as if they’re talking about the weather, as if Levi’s heart doesn’t skip a beat and panic his blood into a stampede. “What did you say your name was?”  
“I didn’t.” It only earns him a chuckle. How can this man act so care free? Levi feels as if he's been doused in ice and set on fire at the same time, just from the cold, and now his lungs refuse to work without sending a sting through his nose. He doesn’t know why, but he wants to start crying, feels like he might. “Why do you care? You should just fuck off.”  
Maybe his father put out a report. Maybe he gave a picture and a contact. Maybe Eren will see it, tell him where he is, and send them right back into that house without even knowing how much danger they’re in. “I’m better off without your damn help, leave me the fuck alone!” He doesn’t care that he’s screaming in the middle of the store, that he’s bloody and barefoot and crazed looking. Eren is dangerous; he’s ignorant and childlike in his efforts to help. He doesn't understand anything.  
“You should eat your sandwich.” Levi’s guts are twisted into a quivering knot, and he makes no move to reply. He just wanted to be alone. A long sigh makes him bow his head in shame. What for, he doesn't know or really care. “I need you to trust me.” They're both acting ridiculous.  
“Of course you do. Otherwise you wouldn’t be trying so hard.” He pokes his sandwich with a skeletal finger. “What I don’t trust is why.” As unsettling as the whole thing had been, Levi found amusement in Eren’s exasperation. He wholeheartedly expected Levi to trust him, a stranger, with all that ailed him. “Even if you’re just some guy with a hero complex, I’m done getting caught up in other people’s fantasies.” Heroes wanted power and respect, and would make their own damsel, even if it made them the villain, too.  
Eren’s face lost its humor.  
“I’m not some sicko trying to get off on you being in trouble. I honestly want to help.”  
“Do you stop for every little boy in a corner, or am I just lucky?” He was pushing the limits of the man’s hospitality. He could see it on his face that he was becoming annoyed with the relentless distrust to Levi’s entire being. His body, his eyes, his words were closed to him.  
With another, heavier sigh, Eren shook his head and pulled his lips around the straw of his drink. He needed a minute to collect his temper. This kid was obviously in trouble, and he supposed it was good for Levi to be wary of a stranger, but it did make things difficult. He’d long since set away his phone, and that had made it easier to talk to the kid. His shoulders weren’t as tense, and he didn’t hold the same fear in his eyes. It was almost like Levi was teasing him, now.  
“I don’t come across enough little boys like this to give you a good answer.” Maybe he could lighten the mood. Mikasa and Armin always said he had a way of putting people at ease despite him brash disposition. “You seem a little too grown up for a pedophile to target, anyway.” He realized a little too late that this wasn’t the time to joke about heinous criminals.  
Levi recoiled and barked a shocked chuckle. “I guess I should count myself lucky.” A few people with their faces buried in footlongs still stared, and Levi felt their eyes now. He felt too much, and the reigning thought was that he was being stupid. Talking to this stranger was stupid, and he was an idiot. “I think I should be going, now.”  
“Wait!” Eren couldn’t watch him walk away. Not like that; his legs still shaking and so pale, his feet slapping a worrying amount of blood on the already dirty tile. His face looked hollow. “Let me- Let me buy you a real meal.” Something in him must have snapped, because all Levi said was, “Sure.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be trying to post new chapters every week, but I'm needing to cram seven online courses before April.  
> I know it isn't well written, so any pointers would be much appreciated, and I'm in dire need of an editor. Thank you for reading.


	3. Author's Note:

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the month long hiatus, even though I doubt anyone was anxious for another crappy chapter.

Seems like I broke my new years resolution not even two months into it. So, this story is going to be deleted in a little bit. Hope there's not anyone who's disappointed. Thanks for reading.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello. This is my first work (That I didn't immediately delete). Please give me constructive comments and ideas of where you want the story to go.


End file.
